Darkness
by Twisted Skys
Summary: Sandy was only second later than he should have been. If only he'd been faster. Then Jack would not be fighting for his life against an all consuming Darkness. Invisible Darkness Arch, with its own story!
1. Chapter 1

_Set during the movie._

There had been a brief moment where they believed that they had Pitch and his nightmares on the run. It was impossible to corner a shadow, and Pitch reminded them of that. He fell into the shadow that his existence, reaching up the brick walls in such a threatening manner.

It was only Jack's reflexes that kept him being impaled completely. Pitch's scythe banged against the concrete instead of running Jack through. The winter spirit tried to leap away, gain a safe distance. He even threw up his staff in defense.

Pitch's scythe swiped at him, bludgeoning and piercing all at the same time. He fell into the brick wall just as gold light engulfed the horizon for a moment. Pitch was suddenly being dragged away, golden strands lapping at his darkness.

The wound left behind was raw and deep. It oozed darkness and blood, reaching up and out to swallow him whole. He slipped down the wall, for the moment the others following the Nightmare King to see the glorious sight of his sudden and swift defeat.

It was not swift enough.

He could feel the darkness course through him like poison and _hurt_ like nothing Jack had ever felt before. It hurt more than when he melted, or when he was burned. It hurt more than the last time Pitch's darkness touch him.

This was not like a burn, this was like a sickness. A terrible feeling akin to fear that welled up inside him and forced tears down his cheeks and a cry past his lips. He brought his hands up to the wound, hoping to stop the darkness. It reached across his skin like tendrils, hungry and devouring.

He closed his eyes for a second, focused on what was going on around him. The others had followed Pitch. They probably thought he'd simply been thrown into a wall. That was not so grievous; Jack wished for that. Anything but the pain that crashed into him and blinded him.

He tried to climb to his feet. He wanted to see the victory. He wanted to know what it felt like to succeed. To have someone to celebrate it with. He staggered up, using the wall. His vision blurred, the world tiled sickeningly. He could feel the panic entering his heart, eating at him. He could feel it gliding across his skin like an arid wind, cutting him like his skin was paper.

He stumbled and fell, landing back on the concrete with a thud. He could not move, could not see. He knew nothing and yet saw every moment he had ever lived pass before his eyes. The pain crashed into him and ebbed. The roaring in his ears reached a crescendo and died into horrifying silence.

He was a stranger to this sudden silence, and yet it felt frighteningly familiar. It was the silence that slept beneath the ice of a dark lake.

He could hear voices through a barrier. They called his name and he reached for them. For the briefest of moments he saw Bunny's face hovering over him, could see his lips forming words yet no noises reached him. He could feel the Pooka's paws grabbing at him. He could see North and Tooth. He thought he saw Sandy, but it was unclear. A part of him that was still somehow holding onto the outside world told him that Sandy was dead.

They were mere snatches of light and sound against the all-consuming darkness. There was nothing left of him after a moment more. He let the blackness reach into his soul. There was no other choice. He was so tired. He fell from himself and into a slumber that would never match any other he had had before.

_Afterword: This is probably stupidly confusing. But Jack is dying. Nuff said. It's 3am as I write this, and I really should not be. I should go to bed…_

_This is requested by LaZy-RaIn-DaNcEr, who wanted me to re-write the scene in the movie where Pitch is about to run Jack through with the scythe but Sandy revives just in time to win the battle. Except she wanted to see what would happen if Sandy had been just a few more seconds later._

_Edit: If you've come over from Invisible, then this should be familiar. My OCD tendencies were really starting to get annoyed with the simple fact that this was not of the same continuity as the rest of the Invisible timeline. I also realized that I could seriously just turn this into a mini-story. Not a full story because I don't think I could write thirty thousand words for this particular arch, but I could totally make it long enough to stick in its own story. So that's what I've done. I'll continue Invisible as if these last two chapters don't exist. I'll try updating this regularly as well, but I've been having trouble simply writing fanfiction in general lately._


	2. Chapter 2

It took Tooth an entire minute to realize that Jack was not with them. The last time she saw him, he was being thrown into a wall by Pitch. He'd been fine, as she watched Pitch get dragged away. He had fallen and landed on his feet. At least she thought he had landed on his feet. It was hard to remember. The last few minutes of the battle had been a blur of action.

She fluttered away from the small celebration that had gathered around Sandy, back into the shadow laden alley. It took her a moment to find him. He lay face down on the concrete, as still as stone.

A noise escaped her. She was not entirely sure what it was, in retrospect. Somewhere between a gasp and a shriek. It got the attention of the others.

She darted to the limp form on the ground, rolling him and lifting him off the cold ground. Bunny was beside her in an instance, his paws flying to the wound in the winter child's stomach. It seeped blood and darkness, staining the front of his hoodie.

The skin on his hand and what was exposed of his neck and face were slowly turning a sickening color of grey as darkness stained him. Bunny put pressure on the wound, the other paw coming to slap the boy's face. Tooth had his head on her lap and she looked up when North and Sandy appeared.

She looked back the boy just as his eyes fluttered open. Darkness had even seeped into his eyes, clouding clear blue with stands of shadows. His eyes locked onto Sandy, a painfully confused expression flitting over his features for a fraction of a second. The darkness consumed his eyes, swallowing the blue and his eyes drifted shut again.

Sandy was moving suddenly, gold sand being conjured up. It swirled around him with a cutting fury. Like a halo, he dusted the golden sand around the boy. The darkness on his skin withdrew just a fraction, but it was obvious that this was not going to be an easy battle.

Sandy made a figure over his head of Pitch's dark arrow and a question mark. His eyes never left Jack, but they did not have to.

"No," Tooth replied softly. "It was Pitch's scythe."

Bunny was letting loose various curses that no one really understood or even knew existed as he tried his hardest to stem some of the bleeding. He always kept bandages in his pack and right now was a prime example of what a useful habit that was. Thankfully, Jack was not bleeding as bad as he could have been, but the splashes on the concrete were testament to how much had already been lost.

Sandy made a sleigh over his head, and a miniature of Santoff Claussen.

North got the message, putting his fingers to his lips without a word. He whistled for some yetis, started yelling orders at them. They needed to get back to Santoff Claussen. The Russian looked back at the Sandy, still working over Jack as he tried to combat the darkness. He caught a ticking clock over the smaller man's head for a second and rushed off with them to help. They needed to hurry. Pitch was defeated, but another battle was about to begin.

_Afterword: I'm having a really hard time writing right now. I don't know why but it's annoying. I have about a week and a half until school starts again and I'm kind of stressed out already, trying to find the money to pay for all my books. Real world shit I really hate. Anyway. I meant to mention this in the last chapter and I'm sorry for the confusion but this is AU from the previous Invisible timeline. Which is why I've moved it to another story._

_I'm also going another impromptu trip out of town starting tomorrow, so this may be the last chapter until I get back. I'll be gone for about five or six day. I'll try to find some time to work but who knows. I also kind of hurt my hand today because I got pissed off at the world and punched a wall repeatedly, so it's hard to type… I'm done ranting, good bye, I'll see you all next time, whenever that may be._


	3. Chapter 3

Aside from the usual bustle that echoed in the halls of Santoff Claussen, there was an uncharacteristic quiet over the entire complex. The elves and yetis could feel the sadness the permeated the walls and windows. They knew that Jack was sick.

They had brought him in a day after Easter, the night of the final battle. He was deathly still and paler than was normal for him. North carried him in his arms like a precious treasure, careful of bumping anything and demanding that people get out his way. Not even the elves took the chance of getting caught underfoot and fled from the immediate areas. The other Guardians trailed after the massive Russian with solemn silence.

Only Sandy seemed to know what he was doing. He was always at North's shoulder, manipulating golden dust across the boy's skin in hopes of driving back the darkness. Jack did not so much as stir. It was worrying. Sandy hoped that the boy would at least be close enough to the real world that he could show signs of discomfort but he was as still as death. The only thing that kept their own hopes alive was the steady rise and fall of his chest.

They set him in a guest room in the highest part of the complex, where the heaters were not quite as strong. Tooth raced to the window and opened it with a flourish of her arms. Her feet never touched the ground as she flitted around the room in a sort of nervous panic.

Bunny was assigned to crowd control, and he kept getting pushed out the door by North. It should have been the Russian man's job, but he wanted to stay near Jack. So did Bunny for that matter, but Sandy kept sending annoyed glances at the noises of the elves outside the door. That was enough for the pooka to take up the task of getting them all to shut up or go away.

Sandy worked diligently. His hands swept the air and gold light followed in his wake. They haloed the boy's face, adding color and yet making him look paler at the same time. Eventually North took Tooth out into the globe room and left the Sandy to do his work in the peace of silence.

It was only once the remaining three Guardians were present that Bunny finally spoke. "I should have stayed with him," he mumbled just loud enough for them to hear in the silence. "I saw him go down. I should have stayed to make sure he was okay."

"None of us could have known," Tooth spoke next. Despite that she was trying to comfort, her voice was just as shaken as Bunny's. She sounded like she was ready to start crying and she trembled like she was about to break in half. All of her feathers were fluffed in agitation and her tail feathers twitched and flicked every time she moved in the air. "We saw him fall from the sky and he was fine except for having the air knocked out of him. He's tougher than he looks."

Bunny turned on her, furry in his emerald eyes. "That is no excuse!" He stalked toward her, flinging his arms in the air and North was a little concerned that the pooka would hit her. "Pitch threw him into a wall with his scythe of death and gloominess and all we did was carry on like one of our own didn't just go down. We should have noticed when he didn't follow us immediately." He took a breath and let it escape with a shudder. "We should have stayed with him," he repeated darkly.

North sighed heavily, a swirl of emotion mixing with utter exhaustion. None of them had so much as sat down since the battle. They all had to have been exhausted. The Russian certainly was. He watched as Tooth backed down from the argument. Not from lack of anything to say in return but because she probably had no energy to argue. Bunny always had just enough focus to argue, even if he was half asleep. The pooka could have been a lawyer and North would not be surprised.

Tooth finally set her feet on the ground near the fire place. It had been stoked by the yetis within the last hour and was still strong enough to steadily eat away at a sizable chunk of wood.

"What are we going to do?"

"What do you mean?" North asked. There was nothing they could do, except wait and hope that Jack pulled through in the end.

"What if he doesn't make it?"

The silence that followed was deafening and painfully hollow. It hit the other two like a punch to the gut. North had been ready for it and had taken the emotional hit in stride, but Bunny was forced to cover his face with his paws to hide the agony that etched across his face in that instance.

"He'll make it," the pooka said from beneath his paws. "He's a strong kid. I believe in him. I know he'll make it."

The words, although they sounded strong, seemed to fail to pierce the silence that hung on the three of them. No other words were exchanged and eventually Bunny left down his rabbit holes and Tooth took off to her palace for the night, leaving North to stare into the waning fire with a heavy heart and a burdened mind.

_Afterword: Alrighty, Darkness stuff! Dark stuff, as in Dark Eco. Ha. I'm tired. I'm only on the second day of classes and I'm already feeling the burn. Alright! College!_

_I hope you guys enjoyed. That break I took helped big time. I actually feel like writing again. And I'm not ashamed of the stuff I'm writing either. I seriously don't think I've had so much practice writing emotional pieces as with this fandom. It'll come in handy, I just know it._


	4. Chapter 4

It was only after a long night of fighting that Sandy was finally able to set up some of the barriers required to keep the darkness from consuming Jack completely. His sleep was deep and unending. Sandy almost wished he was fitful, if only for the confirmation that Jack was still with them.

The golden man floated to a chair on the far side of the small bedroom and flopped down in it gracelessly. He was so tired. He never remembered ever being this tired in his long life. He gazed up at the ceiling, grey and dark where the light from the lamp did not quite reach.

After a long time, the dream master rose from the chair and floated back to Jack's side. He shifted the blankets closer to the boy's chin and tried to smile. Looking at Jack like this should have brought him at least a little comfort. Jack was asleep. He was resting peacefully. Sandy could not shake the feeling that this was a false peace.

* * *

Shadows and tendrils of coarse darkness seeped into his mind. He saw it like one saw a tidal wave rushing towards them. Fear and panic making his heart pound and leaving a sour taste in his mouth. There was an emotion that crushed him. He had never felt it before. Never wanted to know what it was. It was not fear, it was nothing like that. It felt like hope being crushed. Like there was still a chance to run, but no way that you would ever survive.

It threatened to swallow him whole. Jack thrashed in the darkness, being crushed by an unimaginable weight.

_We may have lost, but look at the gift they left us._

The hissing reached his ears. Too quiet to be heard very well, and yet so loud it hurt his ears. He curled in on himself, trying to block it out. He would have ran away but he did not know if he even had legs to run away on.

_Poor little child. All alone. Look at how they abandon you._

Who was it talking about? He did not know anyone that could abandon him. He was alone. No one had ever cared for him.

_Alone. Always alone. They __**hate**__ you._

No. No, no, no, no. The Guardians! They did not hate him. They cared for him. They would come for him. They would rescue him.

The voice in the darkness cried. A long, lone tone that tore Jack to the core. It cried of loneliness and desperation and a pain so unimaginable and deep and _old. _It was only after it had died into quiet again did he realize that it had been his own voice.

* * *

Bunny and Tooth returned by morning. They looked like they had not slept a wink. Sandy was in an almost worst condition. The bags beneath his eyes were nothing compared to the dullness they had assumed. But he worked tirelessly.

He had rested sometime in the night, once he had been sure that they would not lose the boy. Jack was far from recovered. He would need time, and Sandy had a lot more work to do.

It was obvious that the others were disappointed. They had expected that Jack would be up and around by now. That he would back to his old self again. That they could all go home and sleep easy knowing that the boy was fine.

Only that he was not. He was still in the death like sleep. Still as silent as if he had never been alive. It pained them all.

They barely knew Jack. They knew he was a child, made for being a Guardian from the very beginning. They knew that he was a trickster. They also knew that he was so very alone. They wanted to know more. They wanted to know if blue was his favorite color or if he was a rebel and liked red. What was his favorite kind of cookie, or maybe even what his favorite snowflake design was?

There was an unspoken fear among them that none of them would ever know. Sandy only worked harder, knowing that it all depended on him in the end.

_Afterword: It's been a very long week guys. I know it's only Thursday, but that's my Friday in some respects. Five am mornings are a drag. But it's worth it in the end. If I got up later, I probably wouldn't have time to write for you guys._

_So anyway, I was doing some brainstorming for this story and it threatens to become a monster. It was pretty straight forward to begin with but my brain likes to complicate everything. I can't have a multi-chaptered story without a plot twist or two, apparently._

_Edit: Sorry about the line breaks, guys. For some awful reason, the site keeps deleting the ones I put in and I keep forgetting to put in different ones before I post._


	5. Chapter 5

She moved around him like a dancer almost. She was so graceful, so good at what she was doing. Jack laughed as he watched her. She laughed too. She laughed because he laughed. He hooked her hands in his and they spun briefly, the sound of the forest around them like a familiar lullaby.

There was something ominous about all of this. It was like a niggling at the back of his head. Something was supposed to happen. He ignored it because Pippa was right there and she was laughing and skating across the ice like she had been born for this.

And it happened. Like a script, or a story that Jack had read over and over again. The sound of the ice cracking echoed through his soul. It was like an old wound acting up in the dead of winter. An ache that reached so far inside him he could not escape it.

Except this time, instead of himself falling, it was Pippa. He cried as he leapt for her. She disappeared beneath the ice, her scream cut short by the terrible consuming cold.

"No! No, no, no!" He chanted it like a prayer. Pippa was not supposed to die. He dug at the ice where she had been swallowed, but it had closed up over her head. He could _see _her beneath the surface, scratching at the ice in a desperate attempt to get at the air above.

He yelled, screamed, pounded at the ice. She eventually faded into the darkness, away from him. This was not right, this was not supposed to happen. She was supposed to live, he was supposed to die. That was how it happened. Not this. Anything but this.

_She died because of you. You weren't fast enough._

The tortured voices that echoed around him. The forest was deathly still, the silence left in their wake was deafening.

_You failed her. Like you fail everyone._

"Shut up!" he screamed into the silence. "You're lying. Pippa did not die!"

The darkness, like a snake of razor wire appeared before him. It had started doing that. It curled around him like a friendly wind, except it threatened to cut him. _Oh but she did. You see, when you left her, her dearest brother, her best friend, she never recovered._

"That's not true! She got married. She had kids."

_But she never forgot you. She never forgave herself. She blamed herself. You left her, and she suffered more than you could ever imagine. It was your fault._

"No… No."

The darkness curled around him, touching his skin. It was like it was trying to comfort him but it was not sure how. A part of him did not care anymore. He was so tired.

* * *

Sandy's fragile concentration was broken by the smallest of noises these days. A week after the battle of the Nightmares. Belief was coming back and Sandy could feel the strength of it keeping him going. But really, that was all that was keeping him going.

Jack's condition had seldom improved. If anything, it had worsened. Like a disease, it spread out from the original wound and was slowly infecting the boy. Just when Sandy thought he had blocked off any further spread, he found another venue it had escaped down. He found one on the back of his neck, which meant that the nightmare sand was in Jack's head.

There was nothing the dream weaver could do about that until Jack emerged from his coma without running the risk of doing irreparable damage to the boy.

Sandy did what he could, but he was wearing thin.

So when Tooth came into the small room that had been acting as an emergency infirmary, Sandy turned a sharp glare on her that surprised the humming bird hybrid so deeply, she actually dropped the bag she was carrying. "Sandy! What is it?" She was always alarmed these days. Her feathers were ruffled and she looked as tired as he was. She stooped to pick up the bag. "I brought cinnamon bread. I know it's your favorite," she said quietly.

Sandy sighed, feeling guilty. He gave her an apologetic smile and waved her over. She fluttered forward, digging into the bag and pulling out a loaf of sweet smelling bread. It was perfect sized for the small man. He accepted it gratefully and put it on the table beside the bed.

She hovered behind him for a minute, a small sigh escaping her. Sandy knew she was going to ask after the boy on the bed. He braced himself for it, considering telling her a lie to make her feel better. He was surprised when her petite arms wrapped around his shoulders in a tight hug. She said nothing to him, only held him for a long moment before she let go, collected her bag, and left quickly.

Sandy smiled, taking a little of the bread, and set back to work. The others and Jack were counting on him, and he would not let them down again.

_Afterword: Hey y'all. I hope you all had a good weekend._

_I wanted to take a quick pole. I'll ask this again in tomorrow's Invisible post, but I feel like I'll forget. How many people would be interested in me writing an original story? I know a few people mentioned that they wouldn't mind seeing something besides ROTG from me, but I want to know how many people would actually be interested. I realize that you have no idea what I've been working on, so you're going off of example._

_The story I'm thinking of is something that's been cooking in my brain for the better part of five years. It's an alien war story, to put it simply. It's not human vs alien, either. It's mostly alien vs. alien and sometimes is human/alien vs. alienX2 but alliances have a tendency to flip flop a lot. I'm very proud of it and have worked really hard on it thus far. There's lots of character angst, because I know you guys like that. There's some romance too, but it's not center of the story. I'm thinking it's going to be on an arch format similar to Invisible, but obviously in chronological order. It takes place over a ten to fifteen year period, give or take, so there will be arches of intense action and time breaks for when things run stagnant._

_I have hopes of publishing this one day, so if you're interested in reading it, tell me. I'm in desperate need of feedback._

_Okay, I think this a/n is long enough. Ta!_


	6. Chapter 6

Like an old friend it curled around him. It threatened to swallow him, turn everything he knew black. That scared him, but it was a good kind of scared. It was the kind that reminded you that you were still alive on some level. It was almost comforting in a way.

Jack sighed and the darkness swirled around him in a way that reminded him of the wind. He was in a place where the wind could not reach him. The one friend that he thought would never leave him had left him here to die.

Exactly where 'here' was is hard to say. Sometimes it was dark. Nothing but darkness and cold and the pressure of drowning. Like Jack was dying in slow motion. Sometimes it was bright and blinding and too warm for him to ever be comfortable. This was when he could not feel his own body, like he was floating without control. Sometimes it showed him places. They were always different. Some places he knew, like Santoff Claussen, or his lake. Others he didn't, like the rooms below the earth where shadows were his only companion.

He was not alone in this strange place that always changed. The wind might have abandoned him, as did the moon. There was no comforting light down here. He did not care for that. He did not mourn it's loss like he had the wind. The moon was never more than a thorn in his heart. Always there and yet always distant. He was glad it was gone. The Guardians, those four that he had only known briefly and had treated him like their friend. They were gone too. He mourned their loss more so than he did the moon but less than the wind. They treated him like he was their friend, but Jack knew better. They were only using him.

No, the only friend he had now was the darkness that whispered evil things into his ears. At first it had hurt Jack. It had stung his skin and burned him. It had cut into him in more ways than mere flesh wounds. It would tear into his soul, rip out his heart. It confirmed his worst fears, whispered lies and deceit.

But Jack came to realize that it was only trying to help him. It was not lies. It was truths. The Guardians, the wind, and moon had all left him to rot in this hole. But really, in the end, Jack realized that they had not betrayed him simply because in order to be betrayed one must first belong. Jack had never belonged with them in the first place.

No, the Darkness told him, Jack belonged to it. The Darkness would never leave Jack as the others had. The Darkness would never betray Jack because in the end, they were one and same.

* * *

The fourth day came and finally Jack was starting to show progress. Sandy had found a crystalized shard that Bunny may have missed when he initially cleaned the wound. It was the source of the darkness that kept spreading.

He found it in the metaphysical sense. His sand was ethereal in the way that it could delve into a person's body without actually physically being there. The shard, however, was very much physical and equally a problem.

Considered that the dream weaver had not moved far from the room in the last few days, the others were shocked when he came into the globe room in a flourish of movement and sand. The sand whipped out behind him and he was gesturing wildly at Bunny. In the pooka's defense, Sandy was rather frantic. He watched Sandman with mild alarm as the small man tried to explain exactly what he had found and why he needed the rabbit's medical expertise very suddenly.

After a good few minutes, and a few cups of eggnog, Sandy managed to explain it in a way that the other three could understand.

That was when everything went to hell in the respect that it became akin to an emergency room. Doctor Bunny with his surgical mask and latex gloves and nurse Tooth with a tray of tools waiting obediently for the pooka's orders.

Upon the shard being tugged at and ultimately removed, did Jack finally show his first sign of discomfort. Even as his face contorted with pain and a low wine gurgled from his throat, the others breathed a sigh of relief. Jack was still alive, somewhere in his coma. He was still hanging in there.

_Afterword: Thank you to everyone that responded. I appreciate it greatly. Go to Tumblr for updates on how the original project (dubbed DBD for the moment) is doing. There is a link in my profile._

_On to other matters! Hi guys! I'm in a fantastic mood despite it being Wednesday and butt-ass early. I think part of it is the mere fact that DBD has been given the green light and all the details that have been festering in my head for the last few years are starting to compile and weave together in the most exquisite way. I have a lot of work to do, so it's likely that the first chapter will not see the light of day until April at least. Actually, I think I'll do that. I think I'll officially release the first chapter for reading and critique on April 7. It will be a birthday present to me! It's even a Sunday! Not that you'll understand the significance of Sunday, but that's okay. I'm going to stop ranting before anyone's ears fall off. Ta!_


	7. Chapter 7

It was he'd been submerged in water and all of a sudden was pulled to the top by his heart. His whole chest ached like someone had beat on it and his stomach hurt like a hot knife was trying to drive its way through it. Jack tried to roll over on his side to relieve the pain but it only served to make it worse.

There were voices and hands, and a terrible light that threatened to burn him. He wanted someone to put it out. It was hurting him.

The world refused to come into focus and he floated in some sort of muffled limbo. Everything seemed to lurch and twist, nothing was smooth. He tried to bury his face in the cold soft thing beneath his head but the movement it required was simply too painful.

There was a hand on each shoulder. Maybe there was more than one hand. Jack could not quite tell. The voices that bounced around inside his head were too loud and yet too soft for him to make out what they were trying to tell him. It only served to frustrate him more.

Where was the Darkness that had become his friend? Where had the strange world that always changed gone? He never thought that he would but he wished it were back. At least there he felt no pain.

As if called, the whispers that had comforted him and frightened him for what felt like forever and only mere seconds was around him again. It invaded every inch of his mind, easing the pains at their source. It whispered sweet things to him, promised him rest and peace. His mind drew into in, and it muffled out the light and the voices until he was back in the changing room.

He sighed in something that might have been peace if it weren't for how shaken he felt. A part of him told him he should be rebelling against this dark thing that so easily comforted him. That it only whispered lies and poisonous things. He should be fighting against it. But Jack was so tired and the Darkness kept telling him it was his friend.

* * *

It had been ill timed, in Sandy's opinion. Bunny and North had just happened to have been in the room when Jack finally stirred. Sandy's tireless work was starting to show some real progress. Jack had started to come around for a moment, and everything went to bad from there.

The boy had tried to curl in on himself. It was likely that his wounds were hurting him terribly. It had only just started to heal after they had done their emergency surgery. Bunny had been at his side in an instance, trying to get him to lie flat again.

Jack's eyes had opened for the briefest of moments, wide and terrified, hazy and unseeing. He stared past Bunny, his arms reaching up in a panicked motion. A gurgled cry came from his throat and then North was there, trying to hold the boy's arms.

Sandy would have smacked himself if he was not on the verge of panic himself. How could he have forgotten? The last thing Jack had been conscious for was combat. Of course he was disoriented and scared. He had no idea what was going on and the last time he was lucid, he'd been neck deep in a life or death situation.

The two larger men kept calling his name, trying to get him to respond in some way. The boy only tossed and flailed his arms weakly in response. He looked like he was trying to say something, but his throat was so parched he only groaned and cried.

Having had enough of the general panic, Sandy butt his way into the throng, using a giant sand hand to push both giant and pooka out of the way. They looked at Sandy indignantly for a half of a second before their attention was drawn back to the boy.

Sandy made quick work of Jack, the dream sand drifting over his head in a wave pattern before settling. Jack fell into stillness again, his breath even, despite the occasional hitch. The two other men looked a tad shaken by the whole ordeal, and even more so by Sandy's scolding look. They scurried from the room after only a few minutes.

Sandy watched them leave with a small harrumph and looked back to Jack. His focus and concerns left the two Guardians and shifted to Jack. To his horror, the drifting dream sand that hovered above the boy's head remained the way Sandy had left it when he put it there. It had not changed to mirror a dream. For some reason, that terrified the dream weaver more than then anything he had ever seen before.

_Afterword: I'm sorry it's so late guys. I've been super busy today, but I did not know I was going to be super busy until after I lazed around for an hour this morning. No school on Friday, so I like to enjoy waking up after the sun comes up. So I'm sorry for being late. Anyway, I would also like to apologize for these chapters being kind of slow on the action side. It'll pick up soon, I promise._

_I will see you all on Monday. Ta my lovelies!_


	8. Chapter 8

It was strangely comforting in the way it hit him. Like an old friend coming home from a long trip, it slammed into him and wrapped him in a strangely protective embrace.

Pitch had not been expecting it, to be honest. It startled him so badly that he jolted and tensed and tried to curl in on himself. His heart pounded in his chest, his breath was hard to find. He grasped at the sheets beneath him and kicked wildly at the blankets around his legs.

Then it all seemed to flash into perspective. He took a deep, gasping breath and tried to calm his nerves. A nightmare? Not impossible for him to have, but highly unlikely considering his state of being. He reached up to wipe the sweat from his face, scrubbing at his eyes until he felt marginally better.

That had been very strange. Even stranger was that he could not quite remember what it was that gave him such a scare. He detangled his legs absently, staring off into the darkness.

It had almost felt like… No, that was impossible. He laughed lightly to himself at the absurdity of his own mind. Resonating darkness strings was not something he had set up in a long time. There was simply not very many children or people that had that kind of fear in them that he could manipulate them so easily. Not for a long time, anyway.

Darkness strings tended to be difficult to set up. He had not had the strength for one, let alone a good host in a long time.

He would have passed it off if not for the lingering taste of fear still in the back of his throat. His skin tingled with it, like he'd been shot with adrenaline.

He was too alarmed to go back to sleep, despite the exhaustion that still hung on his limbs. He'd been sleeping quite a lot the last few days, since his defeat. He'd been so tired, that was the only thing he could bring himself to do. He was not even into planning his next attempt. The thought only made him feel a little sick inside. Maybe ashamed was actually a better word. He had not always been this foolish and yet he still kept making all of these mistakes.

He gasped suddenly, jack knifing in his bed. There it was again, that pulse of fear and panic that had initially woken him up. It came as such a surprise, even the second time, that he lost his breath for a long moment, grasping at his chest.

His initial thought had been right. It was a darkness string. He had used them back in the pique of his power to manipulate people directly. Mostly to make examples of them. The best way to make fear a reality was to have the bad things happen.

But where had this one come from?

He closed his eyes against the darkness, feeling along the string of power to whoever it led to. It took him many long minutes to find the source. Whoever it had been had only been conscious for a few seconds, maybe a minute tops.

Then it hit him again as he neared the source. Like being hit with a freight train, it plowed into him and left him breathless. The pain, the fear, all of it. A swell of negative emotions, bitter and delicious. A broken soul, a shattering heart beat an unsteady rhythm. There was death here, and a cold so encompassing.

He knew the instant his mind brushed the other's. A grinned swelled across his face, even as he huffed for breath. He had made a darkness string with Jack Frost.

With a flourish of movement, his mind withdrew from the boy's and he stood from his bed. He had much to do. He needed to prepare himself if he planned to act on this discovery. He did not know how much power he still had within himself, or how much control he was going to have over Jack's actions.

Despite all of that, he felt reinvigorated by the fear that surged from the link. He knew what his next plan was going to entail.

_Afterword: Morning everyone. I'm feeling a little better today, but I still feel like I have a broken head. I realize that this story has been moving a little slow, but it will pick up, I promise. I feel like I've said this before, but I'm kind of fuzzy, so who knows._


	9. Chapter 9

The darkness was clearing up. Sandy was almost surprised when it had started to lift away at his prodding. The poison veins were becoming fainter as the days went on until Jack finally seemed to be looking himself again.

He had awoken a few times in that time. Groggy and a touch delusional, but conscious. Sandy had never been so happy to have his work interrupted when Jack called out softly. Usually in discomfort, but it was better than the deathly stillness that had come over him before.

Sandy was surprised at the resilience of Jack's mind. The darkness had not had any tight holds and where washed away when Sandy doused him in golden dreams. Jack's unconscious adventures returned. Dolphins created waves and snowflakes fell from an imagined sky just above his sleeping head.

The slow recovery of the winter sprite was enough to make the others feel better too. North had been caught humming, Bunny had been leaving a steady supply of chocolate eggs for Sandy, and even Tooth had been more perky. They were all relieved and it made Sandy feel better about himself and everything that had happened. He still regretting that it had happened, but at least everything was going to be okay.

He smiled and petted a hand through Jack's hair, feeling the cold in the soft locks. The boy looked peaceful in his sleep, and it surprised when his eyes opened a slit to look at him blearily.

He grinned and waved a little.

Jack tried to wave back, but all he managed to do was twitch his arm. He still smiled weakly and that was enough to reassure Sandy that he had seen him. He was still a little pale to be completely normal, and there were heavy shadows beneath his eyes. But this was the first time that Jack had awoken and not been in completely discomfort.

Sandy made a few snowflakes out of sand and sprinkled them over Jack. The boy smiled a little wider, his eyes rolling around groggily to try and follow them in the air. He still was not all there yet, that much was obvious but Sandy still laughed silently. Jack seemed to have sensed the amusement in the dream weaver because he looked back at him, confusion coloring his face.

Sandy waved his little hand in a reassuring gesture. The lines on Jack's face smoothed out and he seemed to relax a little. He was still so very exhausted, but he also seemed happy. Whatever the poison had done to him, it was gone now and Jack was better. Sandy sighed, happiness and relief curling in his chest.

Jack drifted off into sleep again and Sandy sprinkled more snowflakes over his head. The boy fell into a peaceful slumber and the dream weaver sighed again. He allowed himself to relax into the chair, the old wood creaking beneath his weight. He sat there slumped for a long minute, watching Jack with a touch of contentment.

He started a little when the door creaked open a touch and a pooka face could be seen peaking in. Sandy smiled patiently and waved the other in. The Australian crept in silently, closing the door slowly so as to prevent making any noise.

He crept over to the side of the bed as if Jack would explode if he so much as made a peep. He even took a page out of Sandy's book and waved noncommittally at the sleeping boy.

Sandy motioned that he was sleeping, and that he was doing better.

The look of sheer relief that blossomed across Bunny's face could have lit up the room and for a moment Sandy almost wished he had a camera, just so that he could document a moment where Bunny actually cared for someone. Not that he was surprised or anything. It was just the first moment that Sandy had been able to see it for what it was and not be worried about Jack as well.

They were not out of the woods yet, but they could start to see the light through the trees. Jack was going to be fine. Bunny seemed content now, a gentle smile on his face. His eyes shown with an unreadable emotion as he watched the winter child.

The pooka suddenly turned, pulling something small out of his pack. He gave it to Sandy with a nod of thanks and left the room. Sandy smiled as he broke off the bunny ears and nibbled on the sweet confection. He would save the rest for Jack when the boy woke up, he decided. But the ears were his, no questions asked.

_Afterword: No there isn't a chapter missing, and no this is not the end of the story. It would be nice if everything was fixed this quickly and perfectly, right? What kind of world would we live in then? Would the perfection only be superficial? A veil carefully concealing something that no one person could stomach. And there goes my brain on a completely different tangent, blah blah blah!_


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